MAHS band/choir has boffo trip to Texas

MAHS music talent on display in San Antonio

How wonderful to have the opportunity to share the photo above. It's MAHS band members during the exciting trip to Texas. I understand they're back now. Their director is Wanda Dagen. Let's emphasize that choir was along for this trip also. Their director is John Kleinwolterink. 

There was a Kleinwolterink on the MACA boys basketball team. That's Sam. The basketball team climbed to such great heights at tourney-time, there was a close call with the clash of schedules at the end: basketball and music. For a time, I thought the situation might not be repairable. At the end it was, sort of. Some hectic last-minute adjusting appeared to be required. 

The pep band fulfilled its obligations for the Tigers, then the whole music group immediately departed from the Twin Cities. I personally feel the music trip was far more enriching for the participating young people than sports. So few kids actually play in the game of basketball, while everyone else just sits and watches. 

The pep band certainly does its thing. There is a bone of contention in connection with pep band: is it art? I know many people in the academic side of music pooh-pooh that, while I think a more reasoned assessment would suggest otherwise. Personally I have always seen pep band as an art form. I am guessing that our director Dagen would demur on that. Fine, the MAHS music program puts on boffo concerts these days at the concert hall. I am delighted to attend. 

But pep band? Former football coach Jerry Witt would tell you that I often made comments about pep bands when I was at his home. Pep band can be artful if it's approached seriously. There are "stock" arrangements for pep band tunes that probably do not come off exactly as art. A critic might suggest it's noise. I think that's a little knee-jerk. But an enterprising director could find arrangements of tunes that we don't hear all that often at gyms for sports events. 

I personally like it when there's a trap drummer. I heard a band at the Concordia Fieldhouse once play an arrangement of a Blood, Sweat and Tears tune - trap drums in the picture. I haven't heard this tune before or since in a gym setting. A performance like this moves me. 

The game at Concordia involved the Cyrus Panthers.

Sometimes I think academic music people assume that music connected with sports must be low-brow. Here's where I demur. A really sharp pep band doing distinctive stuff might draw the same kind of response from the audience - yes, sports fans - as a really sharp jazz band. This has the bonus of taking some of the attention away from sports! Hey music people, doesn't that interest you? 

So, the MAHS band and choir kids are back from a trip they will never forget. Meanwhile the sports "monster" rolls on, never retreating, hardly ever exhibiting humility. Music is always supposed to roll over for sports, to make accommodations for sports, and it's never the other way around. The local newspaper might try to sell a "special section" for a sports accomplishment, while music must stay in its place. The media's recognition for music is much more restrained, like it's just an obligation being fulfilled. "Let's be nice to music too."

Well, to hell with that attitude. I know how media people view things, believe me. 

Post-season sports is set up these days with marketing in mind: create the best possible opportunity for all teams to at least look like they're accomplishing something major. And then, you'll get the media eating right out of your hand. It does work. 

The Morris and C-A schools had to suffer through a huge embarrassment in connection with the state basketball tournament. It makes us wonder if the whole thing was worth it. Then again, it was just one kid doing something impulsive with social media, where all it takes is one little push of a button to "send." Not the kind of world I grew up in. 

Remember when Don Imus got forced off the air? I always thought he should have defended himself by just saying he was doing a parody of hip-hop culture. However, the lines for impropriety are drawn so clearly and unequivocably now. It still surprises me, because my young adult years were when the movie "Blazing Saddles" came out. That should tell you a lot. 

The wonderful picture you see with this post was forwarded to me by a friend, who says it was on the Kleinwolterink Facebook page. Thanks to anyone connected to it. In the "old days" when I was with the Morris newspaper, I would interview one or both music directors for a feature article in the Morris paper. There was no social media for touching those bases then. I have wonderful memories of doing interviews one-on-one with people, taking notes in spiral notebook. 

I always tried to create a pleasant atmosphere in those interviews. I'd love to do such a thing again, especially in connection with the band/choir trip to Texas. I would especially like to interview the band director! But such a thing is probably just fodder for my dreams. "Mongo just pawn in game of life." (That's a line from "Blazing Saddles," Alex Karras.)

 

The spring season

A friend from out of town is ahead of me on this one: The UMM baseball team now has its home at Chizek Field. Around and around we go with change these days, n'est-ce pas? 

I appreciate the info because I try to stay current. I responded to my friend from BBE with an email that had some background about Chizek Field. I touch on media-centered topics too. Here's part of what I wrote:

 

Thanks for telling me about UMM baseball at Chizek. There has always been an issue with evening sun angle at that place. I remember covering Eddie Feigner the softball guy when he came here in the 1980s, and he abbreviated the whole show because of that. That was his stated reason but there was another: his barnstormers were facing a team of all-stars and they were pissed. Those things were set up for the visitors to just play some local celebrities like the mayor. I remember that evening so vividly. I mean, those guys were really pissed. Eddie's son came jogging over and said "playing you guys is like being on Valium, man." So they were pissed, although I've never been on valium. I was just there for the paper.

Oh, Chizek Field is designed the way it is because when first built, it was understood that all games were played in the afternoon. So I was told recently.

Here's the deal: If it's UMM's intent to share with the public school so much, I think this hurts UMM's image. UMM should have its own distinct facilities as much as possible, for prestige reasons. UMM should not use places that are also used by snotty-nosed young kids, to be blunt. Remember the "Humanities Phase III" proposal? It died. There are bad signs with the UMM music program. I wonder about the future of the whole place. There is a legislative proposal for "grant" money for kids to attend outstate U campuses. In other words, go to the gov't trough and get more money, the approach for every problem these days.

Very, very depressing weather of late: gray, windy, too cold etc., and this is why I've been writing more than usual. I am writing more than I even want to write. I got on such a "roll" with Tigers in state tourney, plus the unexpected excitement at the end with the scandalous message. I'm having to try to withdraw now.

As for my future writing, it may be scaled back. My sources for covering Tiger sports are becoming less and less. I used to rely on the Willmar paper a lot. When it came out six days a week and even five, I could go to library with my notebook and accomplish a lot. Yes, the Willmar paper had issues with factual consistency at times. But on the whole I got a lot of help from that resource. Often I would write about their consistency problems. Yes I know it's hard covering all this stuff. Football is the hardest: the game summaries are so involved. Often I'd see mistakes with "score by quarter." I suppose the writer would ask the source for this info and then the source had to quickly try to figure it. Oh, I smile as I remember the days where I'd interview some coaches (like Steve Harter) and he'd add up stats as we went along. Time-consuming, and he'd whisper as he added stuff up. There are so many teams now, and parents are so demanding, I would not want to step into that arena again.

Mark Torgerson stepping down, and he has posted game stats reliably on Maxpreps. Very likely he did this because I put him on to Maxpreps. It has been very helpful, but his successor won't do it, I'm sure, unless Torgy makes a strong suggestion. My last reliable resource could be the kmrs-kkok site, and while you can find timely stuff there (unlike the paper), it tends to be pretty brief. Besides, if that is my only source, I should just step aside and let them do it.

So Sue Dieter was going to be all gung-ho with the paper's website. That was a huge factor when I left, my fears of "a press day every day." So now what do we have? A VESTIGIAL website. Shelly must get complaints about it. I wonder what she tells people. I was expecting a special section about the Tigers in state but it looks like they just used the normal 'B' section. Maybe advertisers are getting a little drained, or they already spent $ for the Hancock girls. Enough is enough.

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com